Alphanumeric paging message system operating on internet

ABSTRACT

A message-sending system provides for entering an identifier uniquely associated with an intended recipient and a message for the intended recipient in a WEB page, and associating the identifier with the intended recipient&#39;s pager routing information from a database accessible to a WEB Server providing the WEB page. A successful association leads to formatting a pager message for the intended recipient, and forwarding the formatted message to a pager system serving the intended recipient. In some embodiments success or failure of the pager message is reported back to the original sender.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is in the area of electronic paging systems, andpertains more particularly to delivering alphanumeric messages topagers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

At the time of the present invention the publicly accessible wide-areanetwork well-known as the Internet, World Wide Web (WWW), or more simplythe Web has demonstrated great success, and continues to grow at a rapidrate. Individuals, businesses, public and private agencies and the likeare depending on the Web for quick access to information and for rapidtransfers of large amounts of data of all sorts. According to expertsand analysts phenomenal growth and development of new Web products isvirtually certain to continue.

Also at the time of the present invention, the use of paging systemscontinues to grow as well. Paging systems, as is well-known in the art,are systems wherein users may carry small electronic devices (pagers),which are receivers for RF transmitters arranged in matrices to cover arelatively broad geographic area. Information for an individualsubscriber to a paging service is delivered to a central locationcontrolled by the company providing the service, and broadcast to amatrix of regional transmitters covering the geographical area where thesubscriber is likely to be. The information is keyed to the individual'spager, and typically displayed on a small LCD screen of the pager.Transmission from the central location to the matrix of localtransmitters is typically by satellite uplink and downlink.

The functionality of paging service differs in the type of informationwhich may be delivered. In one familiar mode, one may call a pagingcompany from a touch-tone telephone (or a telephone call may be divertedand forwarded to a paging service), and then enter (usually at a prompt)a telephone number for the intended recipient to call. The telephonenumber is then broadcast by the paging service to the matrix oftransmitters and rebroadcast to be received by the intended recipient'spager. The number is displayed on a display screen of the pager.

The telephone system as described immediately above is not verypracticable, however, for longer alphanumeric messages. For systems thatactually deliver messages instead of only return phone numbers, adifferent mode of delivering the message to the paging service provideris necessary. In many instances a paging terminal or special softwareoperating on a PC is needed, wherein messages are entered from thekeyboard associated with the terminal or PC, and then delivered asmachine operable text to the paging service provider's central locationby means of a modem over the public switched telephone network (PSTN).In some few instances known to the inventor, users may send an e-mailmessage to an address not specifically associated with an individual.The e-mail message sent must have considerable routing information, suchas paging network, PIN number, and the like relative to the intendedrecipient.

What is clearly needed is a simplified and direct way for users to sendalphanumeric messages to recipients carrying pagers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a message deliverysystem is provided, comprising a WEB page on a WEB Server having aninput interface adapted for a message sender to enter an identifierparticular to an intended recipient and an alphanumeric message; a pagermessage preparation facility operating on the WEB server adapted tointegrate the identifier and message from the input interface with dataretrieved from a database, matching routing information for the intendedrecipient with the identifier, thereby providing a pager message for theintended recipient; and a pager message sending facility adapted to sendthe prepared pager message to a paging system to be transmitted to apager associated with the intended recipient. The identifier can be anyone of several pieces of information particular to the intendedrecipient, such as e-mail address, social security number, businessphone number, and the like. In some embodiments the message deliverysystem is further adapted to return a message to the message sender viathe WEB page, announcing result of the pager message transmission.

In another aspect a WEB page is provided, comprising an input interfacefor a message sender to enter an identifier for an intended recipient,which may be such as the recipient's e-mail; and a signal input for themessage sender to initiate forwarding the message to a paging service.In some embodiments the WEB page further an announcement field forannouncing to the message sender success or failure of a pager messagesent.

In yet another aspect a method for sending an alphanumeric pager messagefrom a message sender's computer is provided, comprising steps of (a)entering an identifier for the intended recipient, which may be therecipient's e-mail address, in a first entry field in a WEB pagetransmitted to the sender's computer from a WEB Server; (b) entering analphanumeric message for the intended recipient in a second entry fieldin the WEB page; (c) associating the identifier at the WEB server withpager routing information for the intended recipient; and (d) formattingthe alphanumeric message and routing information at the WEB Server intoa form required for a pager message, and forwarding the formatted pagermessage to a paging system to be transmitted to the intended recipient.In some embodiments the method further comprises a step of receiving aresult of the pager message sent at the WEB server, and sending a resultmessage back to the message sender via the WEB page.

Many advantages over current art are attained by practicing the presentinvention in its various embodiments. For example, the sender does notneed to know any routing information for an intended recipient, otherthan the unique identifier; and there is no need to enter suchinformation. Further, the system is transparent to the sender as far asthe recipient's pager service provider is concerned, and seamlessmessage sharing is maintained even if the recipient changes services,without having to send new information to all senders of messages., Thechange need be reported only once to the Message Express WEB Server.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 is an example of a Web Browser interface screen according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a process flow diagram illustrating an operation in practicinga preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In a preferred embodiment of the invention a method and system isprovided wherein a user may send an alphanumeric message to an intendedrecipient without having to enter, or even have knowledge of, theintended recipient's pager network, access number(s), PIN number(s) andthe like. In this system, in a preferred embodiment, embedded code in aWEB browser executing on a user's personal computer (PC) is used to senda message to an intended recipient based on an identifier unique to theintended recipient. In a preferred embodiment the identifier is theintended recipient's actual e-mail address. In various embodimentsdescribed herein, notice is taken that programming of Web servers, WEBpages, and the like, and the use of software such as CTI programs isgenerally well-known in the art, so no attempt has been made herein todescribe such operations in minute detail. It is certain that those withskill in the art, having been taught the specifics of the invention asdescribed herein, will be able to practice the invention usinginformation and procedures within the known ordinary skill level.

FIG. 1 is an example of an input interface according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention, providing input for a messagesystem termed Message Express by the inventor. In this system a personwho wishes to send a message to an intended recipient known to be (orthought to be) a subscriber to Message Express, connects to the Internetthrough his Internet Service Provider (ISP), and accesses the MessageExpress WEB page on an Internet Server by use of any suitable WEBbrowser. The sender may of course have the Message Express URL in abookmark, or even have a Macro or Startup script for going to theMessage Express WEB page.

Once at the Message Express WEB page an input interface window 101 isprovided as shown exemplary in FIG. 1. Those with skill in the art willrecognize that there are many forms this window might take to serve thefunctions described below. In this example an input field 103 isprovided to accept the identifier associated with the intendedrecipient. The identifier can be typed in, or selected from an addressbook using procedures well-known in the art. A second field 105 isprovided for entering an alphanumeric message of (in this example) up to50 characters. It will be apparent to those with skill in the art thatin other embodiments shorter or longer message limits may be imposed.

Once an identifier and a message arc entered the user activates theMessage Express by clicking OK button 107. A cancel button 109 isprovided for terminating the process without activating the messageexpress. Clicking the OK button invokes a Computer Telephony Interface(CTI) program on the Message Express WEB Server.

The process of the CTI program on the WEB Server is illustrated by theflow diagram of FIG. 2. At step 201 the user-form of FIG. 1 is received,that is, the process is initiated by a user having entered an identifierand a message, and having clicked on the OK button in this example.

At step 203 the system accesses a database accessible to the Web Serverwherein data pertaining to registered recipients (subscribers) isstored. This data associates the subscriber's pager network, accesscode(s), PIN number(s) and so forth with the subscriber's identifier. Atstep 205 it is determined if a match was made in the database for theidentifier entered and a subscriber.

If the identifier is for a registered subscriber, control passes to step211, and the data received in the form (alphanumeric message) isformatted into the form required by the registered recipient's pagingservice. If there is no match found, an error message is returned to thesender of the message, so the sender can either correct the identifieror conclude that the intended recipient is not a subscriber to theMessage Express.

At step 213 the Message Express retrieves routing information from thedatabase pertinent to the intended recipient and to the paging systemthat will be accessed to page the recipient. At step 215 the formattedand prepared message is sent to the paging system, which can be any kindof PC that is set up to send messages to pagers.

Once the formatted message is sent to the paging system and forwarded tothe intended recipient, a return is typically made. The return isusually that the page was sent and received, but, in some cases theremay be a problem. For example, the intended recipient may be outside thegeographic area covered by the paging system, the pager may be turnedoff, or there may be a formatting or addressing problem.

At step 217 the result of the page effort, success or failure and reasonfor failure, is sent back to the user's (sender's) screen on the WEBpage displayed on the video display at the sender's PC. The user is thusinformed whether the message was successfully sent.

The Message Express system maintains database 220 and makes updates on aregular basis, so any subscriber may change services or parameters andreport the change to the Message Express system so the database may beupdated and that subscriber may continue to receive valuable messagesover the Message Express.

It will be apparent to those with skill in the art that there are manyalterations that might be made in the embodiments described hereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Some ofthose alterations have been described, such as the variance that may beallowed in the number of characters which may constitute a message inthe Message Express system. There are many other such alterations thatmight be made. For example, it is well-known that programmers are anindividualistic lot, and that there are many ways that code might beprovided to accomplish the functions described for the invention herein.There are similarly many forms the input interface described exemplaryby FIG. 1 might take. The window of FIG. 1 is a single example of manyforms within the spirit and scope of the invention. The order of stepsas described in FIG. 2 might change within the spirit of the inventionas well. Further, database 202 may take many forms. There are many othersuch alterations possible within the spirit and scope of the invention,and the invention is limited only by the claims which follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A message delivery system, comprising:a WEB pageon a WEB Server having an input window on the WEB page, the input windowcomprising a first input text field for entering identity of an intendedrecipient, and a second input text field for entering an alphanumericmessage; a pager message preparation facility operating on the WEBserver integrating the identifier and message from the input windows onthe WEB page with data retrieved from a database, matching routinginformation for the intended recipient with the identifier, therebyproviding a pager message for the intended recipient; and a pagermessage sending facility sending the prepared pager message to a pagingsystem to be transmitted to a pager associated with the intendedrecipient.
 2. The message delivery system of claim 1 wherein theidentifier is the intended recipient's e-mail address.
 3. The messagedelivery system of claim 1 having a function for returning a message tothe message sender via the WEB page, announcing result of the pagermessage transmission.
 4. A Web page comprising:an input window having afirst input text field for a message sender to enter an identifieruniquely associated with an intended recipient, and a second input textfield for the message sender to enter a message to be passed to theintended recipient; and a signal input for the message sender toinitiate forwarding the message to a paging service.
 5. The WEB page ofclaim 4 wherein the identifier is the intended recipient's e-mailaddress.
 6. The WEB page of claim 4 further comprising an announcementfield for announcing to the message sender success or failure of a pagermessage sent.
 7. A method for sending an alphanumeric pager message froma message sender's computer, comprising steps of:(a) entering anidentifier uniquely associated with an intended recipient in a firstentry field in a window on a WEB page transmitted to the sender'scomputer from a WEB Server; (b) entering an alphanumeric message for theintended recipient in a second entry field in the window on the WEBpage; (c) associating the identifier at the WEB server with pagerrouting information for the intended recipient; and (d) formatting thealphanumeric message and routing information at the WEB Server into aform required for a pager message, and forwarding the formatted pagermessage to a paging system to be transmitted to the intended recipient.8. The method of claim 7 wherein the identifier is the intendedrecipient's e-mail address.
 9. The method of claim 7 further comprisinga step for receiving a result of the pager message sent at the WEBserver, and sending a result message back to the message sender via theWEB page.